BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
Alexey Retinsky’s career, his numerous projects in London, Dresden, the Centre for World Culture, King Abdulaziz and the premiere for the film Dau in Paris – are the result of many years of practice, preceded by even more devoted to training. Graduating from music school on saxophone, trumpet and oboe (2005), Alexey Retinsky continued his studies in composition at the Tchaikovsky Musical Academy of Ukraine (2005-2009); he completed his Masters in classical and electroacoustic composition at Zurich University of the Arts (2009-2014) and is a postgraduate in composition under Beat Furrer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (2015-2016). From 2013 to 2014 he worked in multichannel sound studio Idee und Klang in Basel, Switzerland. In 2020, at the invitation of Theodor Currentzis, he became the first resident of the musicAeterna cultural center in St. Petersburg.
OEUVRE
Retinsky’s oeuvre is broad and diverse; he creates symphonic, chamber and electronic music, as well as music for theatre, film, installation and performance art. His music works and various projects have been performed at the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Concert House, Mariinsky Theater, MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Museum Joanneum Graz (AT), Dresdner Zwinger (GE), and at the Festivals CIME/ICEM Denton (USA), Salzburger Festspiele, Musik der zeitgenössischen Komponisten in Luzern (CH), Gaudeamus Muziekweek (NL) and many others.
In 2019, the composer participated with electronic music concerts in the launch of director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy’s project Dau in Paris; he received a grant to work on electronic music in Germany’s experimental South West Radio (SWR) studio. Austria’s state department for Arts and Culture awarded Alexey Retinsky one ofthree prizes for composition in 2020.
Alexey Retinsky works with conductors Vladimir Yurovsky and Teodor Currentiz. Alexey Retinsky’s partnership with world famous conductor of Greek origin Teodor Currentzis and his team musicAeterna, is already more than four years old. He moved to Saint Petersburg at Teodor Currentzis’s invitation in 2020, to take up his position as first Resident Composer for musicAeterna, and in 2021 he became Resident of the Alma Mater Foundation Worldwide.
In 2021 Retinsky created an audio installation for the unique project of the symbolic synagogue in Babi Yar (architect Manuel Herz) and in the same year he was awarded the main prize for best film score (Medea by Aleksander Zeldovich) at Kinotavr festival.
MUSICAL LANGUAGE
His musical language seems peculiar in that it is distant from the tradition of the avant-garde and the so-called ‘minimalism’, despite the fact that the formal characteristics of the two can be found within his oeuvre. His experimental electroacoustic music often presents a different “music culture” as it aims to unite and transform a multitude of musical streams into a holistic experience. The term “music culture” in this context encompasses both the temporal and the geographic dimensions. Retinsky sees it as self-evident to try to revert the musical expression in all genres back to its original ritual meaning and create a connection between the listeners and musicians.
« … Alexey Retinsky is a fascinating young composer. This is a completely different category of music … »
– Teodore Currentzis